Epitaxial growth of ZnO layers on (111) GaAs substrates by laser molecular beam epitaxy

ZnO layers were grown on (111) GaAs substrates by laser molecular epitaxy at substrate temperatures between 200 and 550 °C. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that c-axis of ZnO epilayer with a wurtzite structure is perpendicular to the substrate surface. X-ray rocking curves and Raman spectroscopy showed that the crystal quality of ZnO epilayers depends on the substrate temperature during the growth. Strong near-band-edge emission in the UV region without any deep-level emissions was observed from the ZnO epilayers at room temperature. The results indicate that laser molecular beam epitaxy is a promising growth method for obtaining high-quality ZnO layers on (111) GaAs substrates.     

Epitaxial growth of WOx nanorod array on W(001)

Nanorods of substoichiometric tungsten oxide (WO_x) were grown on W(001) substrates. Two methods for the growth of nanorods were used: oxidation of the substrate under appropriate conditions and the deposition of tungsten oxide from a tungsten foil heated in the presence of oxygen. The grown nanorods were observed using a scanning electron microscope and an atomic force microscope. The diameters of the nanorods were 5–20 nm. The nanorods were slightly inclined from the directions parallel or normal to the surface. The inclination of nanorods was explained in terms of the epitaxial relationship between WO₃ crystals and the W(001) substrate. The WO₃ crystals formed at the initial stage of growth act as the nuclei of WO_x nanorods. We observed selective enhancement of the growth in a certain epitaxial direction depending on the method of growth, and an array of WO_x nanorods was produced on the W(001) substrate.     

GaAs(001)薄膜的表面形貌相变和表面重构

从原子级平坦的 GaAs(001)-β2(2×4)重构表面出发,结合 Reflection High Energy Electron Diffrac-tion(RHEED)衍射图像演变和不同尺度的Scanning tunneling microscope(STM)实空间扫描图像,获取GaAs(001)薄膜表面形貌相变和...     

Epitaxial growth of Bi ultra-thin films on GaAs by electrodeposition

We report on the growth of thin bismuth films on GaAs substrates with different orientations by means of electrochemical deposition. Atomic force microscopy reveals that the films are continuous and exhibit low roughness when they are grown under the appropriate overpotential. ω–2θ X-ray diffraction scans only show reflections that can be indexed as (0 1 L), meaning that Bi grows onto GaAs only in combinations of the (0 0 1) and (0 1 0) orientations. The matching between the GaAs substrate and the Bi layer has been studied by asymmetric X-ray scans, finding that Bi grows epitaxially on GaAs(1 1 0) and GaAs(1 1 1)B, both As-terminated surfaces. We explain these results by structural and chemical considerations.     

Two-dimensional interface structures of epitaxial (Ba,Sr)TiO3 film on miscut (001) MgO

We report on the effect of substrate miscut on the 2-dimensional interfacial structure and dielectric properties of the epitaxial Ba_0.6Sr_0.4TiO₃/MgO. Epitaxial Ba_0.6Sr_0.4TiO₃ films on vicinal (001) MgO grown by pulsed-laser ablation were studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Plan-view TEM showed that the films grown on the substrate with miscut angles of 1.2°, 3.5°, and 5.3° have lattice mismatches of − 5.6%, − 6.0% and − 5.7% at the interface, larger than the values (− 5.4%, − 5.7% and − 5.5%, respectively) obtained using cross-section TEM. The films grown on 1.2° and 5.3° miscut substrates consist of commensurate domains with sizes about 30 to 40 nm at the interface, significantly larger than those of 10 to 20 nm obtained for the films grown on the 3.5° miscut substrate. The films with larger commensurate domains at the interface exhibit about 30% higher dielectric constant and dielectric tunability than those with smaller commensurate domains. Initial measurements show that their interfacial differences have a tremendous effect on the dielectric properties of the films.     

Epitaxial growth of WOx nanorod array on W(001)

Nanorods of substoichiometric tungsten oxide (WO_x) were grown on W(001) substrates. Two methods for the growth of nanorods were used: oxidation of the substrate under appropriate conditions and the deposition of tungsten oxide from a tungsten foil heated in the presence of oxygen. The grown nanorods were observed using a scanning electron microscope and an atomic force microscope. The diameters of the nanorods were 5–20 nm. The nanorods were slightly inclined from the directions parallel or normal to the surface. The inclination of nanorods was explained in terms of the epitaxial relationship between WO₃ crystals and the W(001) substrate. The WO₃ crystals formed at the initial stage of growth act as the nuclei of WO_x nanorods. We observed selective enhancement of the growth in a certain epitaxial direction depending on the method of growth, and an array of WO_x nanorods was produced on the W(001) substrate.     

Growth, structure and epitaxy of ultrathin NiO films on Ag(001)

NiO ultrathin films have been grown on Ag(001) by Ni deposition in an O₂ atmosphere. The thickness range 5–50 ML has been investigated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to study the stoichiometric composition and chemical purity of the oxide films. We found completely oxidized stoichiometric NiO films. Their contamination has been found to be limited to the topmost layers. Photoelectron diffraction has given information concerning the local crystal structure of the films. The film atomic geometry has been found to be the same independent of thickness in the 0–50 ML range. The films have the expected (001) rock-salt structure with the same in plane orientation as the Ag(001) substrate. Specular X-ray reflectivity has allowed a very accurate thickness evaluation and has given information on the width of the density gradients at the film–substrate and vacuum–film interfaces, found to be of the order of a few atomic layers.     

Native oxide consumption during the atomic layer deposition of TiO2 films on GaAs (100) surfaces

The consumption of the surface native oxides is studied during the atomic layer deposition of TiO₂ films on GaAs (100) surfaces. Films are deposited at 200 °C from tetrakis dimethyl amido titanium and H₂O. Transmission electron microscopy data show that the starting surface consists of ~2.6 nm of native oxide and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicates a gradual reduction in the thickness of the oxide layer as the thickness of the TiO₂ film increases. Approximately 0.1-0.2 nm of arsenic and gallium suboxide is detected at the interface after 250 process cycles. For depositions on etched GaAs surfaces no interfacial oxidation is observed.     

Structure of ultrathin MgO films on Mo(001)

We have studied the structure of ultrathin MgO films grown on a single crystal Mo(001) surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and low energy electron diffraction (LEED) were used to investigate the effect of substrate temperature and oxygen partial pressure on the growth and morphology of these films. LEED indicates the growth of (100) films with MgO 〈110〉 directions oriented along 〈100〉 directions of the substrate. Despite the insulating nature of bulk MgO, films up to 25-Å thick are sufficiently conducting to perform STM measurements. STM reveals Mg deposition in an oxygen ambient at substrate temperatures from 300 to 900 K produces uniform films. Films as thick as eight atomic layers typically have only three layers exposed. These films consist of small domains between 20 and 60 Å in diameter. The domain shapes are random and the perimeters show no preferred orientation. In contrast, films grown at temperatures in excess of 1000 K exhibit larger three-dimensional MgO islands (Volmer-Weber growth). Steps on these high temperature films orient preferentially along thermodynamically favored MgO 〈100〉 directions. STM images of films deposited at high temperature exhibit a checkerboard pattern. The dimensions and symmetry of this pattern are consistent with the coincidence arising from the mismatch of the MgO(100) and Mo(001) lattice. Annealing room temperature deposited films results in island coalescence and produces uniform films with domains in excess of 100 Å. The perimeters of these domains are oriented along MgO 〈100〉 directions.     

Electronic and magnetic properties of ultra-thin epitaxial magnetite films on MgO(001)

The electronic and magnetic properties of epitaxial Fe₃O₄ (001) films on MgO(100) substrates were studied throughout the 2.5- to 30-nm thickness range using conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy. Despite the superparamagnetism that was observed for film thickness below 5 nm, the Verwey transition persisted even for the thinnest film. Temperature-dependent Mössbauer measurements between 80 K and 400 K revealed that the activation energy for the magnetic moment fluctuations in the 3-nm magnetite film is higher than the magnetic anisotropy energy by an order of magnitude.     

Epitaxial growth on MgO on (001) surfaces of silver single-crystal film substrates

The epitaxial growth of evaporated MgO films (<25–4000 Å) on smooth (001) surfaces of silver single-crystal film substrates at a temperature inthe range 25°–200°C has been studied by reflection high energy electron diffraction. At substrate temperatures below 150°C, MgO is oriented with its (111) plane parallel to the surface of the substrate. The (111) orientation is fibrous. At 150°C a major fraction of the deposit is oriented in parallel and at 200°C only the parallel orientation is observed. The deposit initially grows as oriented three-dimensional nuclei. As the film thickness increases to 500 Å, randomly oriented MgO is simultaneously formed at the surface. With further increase in thickness the degree of epitaxial orientation decreases and at 1000 Å a small amount of one- degree (111) orientation appears at the surface. At 4000 Å the surface orientation becomes one-degree (111); the (111) orientation is interpreted as a final growth orientation.     

Epitaxial growth of CoFe2O4 on SrTiO3 (100) and MgO (100) substrates without buffer layer by laser molecular beam epitaxy technique

Among the family of ferrite materials, cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) is unique in that it has the highest values of magneto-crystalline anisotropy and magnetostriction. Recently, much of the efforts have been focused on the fabrication of single crystalline cobalt ferrite films. For the epitaxial growth of cobalt ferrite, the issues of lattice parameter and crystal symmetry mismatch with the substrate are of considerable importance. The growth of thin films of CoFe₂O₄ on MgO and SrTiO₃ single crystal substrates is reported in this paper. The key parameters on the growth modes were investigated by changing oxygen pressure and substrate temperature. Results show that the two-dimensional layer-by-layer growth mode only occurs under high oxygen pressure for epitaxy of Co ferrite. The significant observation presents the controllable lattice constant of a highly strained thin film by modulation of the substrate temperature. In this light, to grow high quality Co ferrite thin films on SrTiO₃ is of a considerable importance to modulate intrinsic magnetic properties.     

Epitaxial growth of titanium oxide thin films on MgO(100) single-crystal substrates by reactive deposition methods

We synthesized titanium oxide thin films on MgO(100) single-crystal substrates by two reactive deposition methods and compared the structures of the thin films formed by these methods. In one method (pulsed-molecular-beam deposition method), molecular oxygen is supplied to the substrates by using a pulsed-molecular-oxygen beam source and deposition of one unit layer of titanium and subsequent supply of molecular oxygen are repeatedly performed. In the other method (radical beam deposition method), atomic oxygen is irradiated to the substrates by using an atomic oxygen beam generated by the radical beam source and irradiation of the atomic oxygen and deposition of titanium are simultaneously performed. In the case of the pulsed-molecular-beam deposition method, the crystal structure was changed by increasing the number of oxygen pulses supplied from the beam source. We found that the crystal structure of titanium oxide depended on the composition ratio of O:Ti in the film. The maximum ratio of O:Ti attainable by this method was 1.85, and at this ratio, (100)-oriented pseudorutile was formed. In the case of the radical beam deposition method, (100)-oriented anatase was formed below the titanium deposition rate of 0.10 nm/s and pseudorutile (TiO_2−δ) was formed above 0.15 nm/s. The pseudorutile structure synthesized on this experiment was very stable in air. We concluded that the crystal structure of the pseudorutile is a new crystal structure of titanium oxide.     

Structure and formation energy of steps on the GaAs(001)-2 × 4 surface

The energies of various steps on the As-terminated GaAs(001)-2 × 4 surface are evaluated using a novel, approximate method of “linear combination of structural motifs”. It is based on the observation that previous total energy minimizations of semiconductor surfaces produced invariably equilibrium structures made of the same recurring local structural motifs, e.g. tetrahedral fourfold Ga, pyramidal threefold As, etc. Furthermore, such surface structures were found to obey consistently the octet rules as applied to the local motifs. We thus express the total energy of a given semiconductor surface as a sum of (i) the energies _M of the local structural motifs appearing in the surface under consideration and (ii) an electrostatic term representing the Madelung energy of point charges resulting from application of the octet rule. The motif energies are derived from a set of pseudopotential total energy calculations for flat GaAs(001) surfaces and for point defects in bulk GaAs. This set of parameters suffices to reproduce the energies of other (001) surfaces, calculated using the same pseudopotential total energy approach. Application to GaAs(001)-2 × 4 surfaces with steps reveals the following. (i) “Primitive steps”, defined solely according to their geometries (i.e. step heights, widths and orientations) are often unstable. (ii) Additional, non-geometric factors beyond step geometries such as addition of surface adatoms, creation of vacancies and atomic rebonding at step edges are important to lower step energies. So is step-step interaction. (iii) The formation of steps is generally endothermic. (iv) The formation of steps with edges parallel to the direction of surface As dimers (A steps) is energetically favored over the formation of steps whose edges are perpendicular to the As dimers (B steps).     

Growth and structural investigations of epitaxial hexagonal YMnO3 thin films deposited on wurtzite GaN(001) substrates

Epitaxial hexagonal YMnO₃ (h-YMnO₃) films having sharp (00l) X-ray diffraction peaks were grown above 700 °C in 5 mTorr O₂ via pulsed laser deposition both on as-received wurtzite GaN/AlN/6H-SiC(001) (w-GaN) substrates as well as on w-GaN surfaces that were etched in 50% HF solution. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed an interfacial layer between film and the unetched substrate; this layer was absent in those samples wherein an etched substrate was used. However, the substrate treatment did not affect the epitaxial arrangement between the h-YMnO₃ film and w-GaN substrate. The epitaxial relationships of the h-YMnO₃ films with the w-GaN(001) substrate was determined via X-ray diffraction to be (001)_YMnO3 ‖ (001)_GaN : [11¯0]_YMnO3 ‖ [110]_GaN; in other words, the basal planes of the film and the substrate are aligned parallel to one another, as are the most densely packed directions in planes of the film and the substrate. Interestingly, this arrangement has a larger lattice mismatch than if the principal axes of the unit cells were aligned.     

Initial stages of cobalt film growth on MgO(001) surface

The initial stages of cobalt film growth on a MgO(001) surface was studied by methods of sample surface structure imaging by reflected electrons, low-energy electron diffraction, and Auger electron spectroscopy. The measurements were performed at room temperature for cobalt layer thicknesses up to 40 Å. It is established that cobalt film growth proceeds according to the island mechanism. In the interval of cobalt film thicknesses below ∼ 10 Å, the dominating surface phase has the form of cobalt islands with an fcc structure; at greater layer thicknesses, the surface film consists predominantly of cobalt grains with an hcp structure.     

Search for a wetting layer in thin film growth of para-hexaphenyl on KCl(001)

The non-existence of a strongly bound wetting layer for the system para-hexaphenyl (6P)-KCl(001) was verified by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The 6P films were grown by physical vapour deposition under ultrahigh vacuum conditions at 400 K. TDS showed just a single desorption peak even down to a coverage of 0.1 nm mean film thickness. The heat of evaporation for 6P was determined to 2.3 eV. From the change of the XPS K2p substrate signal as a function of the mean film thickness one can conclude that a strong de-wetting exists at the very beginning of the 6P layer growth at 400 K. Additional investigations with atomic force microscopy reveal that at this initial stage the film grows in a form of needle like islands with a high aspect ratio and subsequently terraced mounds of 6P are formed. No dissociation of 6P on KCl was observed.     

Decoherence in grazing scattering of fast H and He atoms from a LiF(001) surface

The influence of decoherence on the diffraction during grazing scattering of fast hydrogen and helium atoms from a LiF(001) single crystal surface with projectile energies of some keV, is investigated by two-dimensional angular distributions for scattered projectiles in coincidence with their energy loss and emitted electrons from the target surface. For keV hydrogen atoms, we identify the excitations of electrons and excitons of the target surface as the dominant mechanisms for decoherence, whereas for keV helium atoms these contributions are negligibly small. The suppression of electronic excitations owing to the band gap of insulators plays an essential role for preserving quantum coherence and thus for the application of fast atom diffraction as a surface analytical tool.